Page 129 of Poisoned Promise
Caterina stands over me.
Her sky blue dress is scorched and burned, covered in streaks of soot, oil and blood.
Half of her hair is plastered to her head as a large head wound pours blood all down the side of her face and across her shoulders.
I notice that before I notice the gun aimed at me.
“The Irish,” she sneers, casting an eye beyond me to the war below. “I should have wiped them all out after I took out your father but I didn’t want to make it obvious.” She wobbles, balancing on one broken heel. “Mother to mother, I almost respect you.” She lifts one shoulder. “Almost.”
I should move but my limbs feel like lead. Everything hurts, and yet the pain is so intense that it’s almost fading out of focus.
“I’m going to kill Alex next. I’ll tell him you died?—!”
A deafening crack explodes next to her head and Caterina’s lifted off her feet, eyes rolling into the back of her head.
I watch her body stumble, then crumple like a deflated balloon as she collapses and topples right off the edge of the roof, leaving Felix standing behind her with his gun aimed at where her head had just been.
He immediately drops it and falls to his knees beside me, “Dove!”
“I’m okay,” I reply, even as blood continues to leak into my mouth. Felix drags me into his arms and cradles me in his lap, petting my hair and caressing my face over and over.
“Oh my god, I thought you’d died! I thought—!” He cuts himself off by kissing my forehead repeatedly, then down to my lips. “Oh god?—!”
“I’m okay,” I repeat with a small smile in between the feverish press of his mouth. “Although… I think I broke my ribs.”
“You’re okay. Toph is getting help. You’ll be okay I swear.”
“You might have been right.” Small pants follow each word. “It was kind of risky going after her.”
Felix’s eyes lock with mine and then he laughs softly. “You think?”
“Oh baby…” His gorgeous, inked torso is covered in several new lacerations from the knife-wielding guard he was fighting, and my heart squeezes. “You’re hurt.”
Felix preens slightly as he very slowly climbs to his feet while keeping me in his arms, bridal style. “It’s nothing I can’t handle.”
“Is now a good time to flirt with you because I totally wanna kiss it all better.”
“Did you hit your head again?” Felix smirks down at me. “Because I think you should see a doctor first.”
I cradle his jaw with my hand and nod. “You can be my doctor.”
“I’ll be your doctor any day.”
“Take me home?”
We reach the door and Felix gazes down at me with the twinkling night sky battling through the rising smoke. Then he leans down and tenderly covers my mouth with his in a deep, tired kiss.
“I’ll take you home,” Felix promises softly.
38
DOVE
Three days.
More doctors than I can count.
Even a therapist drops by to initiate several conversations, prompted apparently by Bree, who wanted to ensure I wasn’t harboring any other maniacal desires to throw myself into launching helicopters.
